Title: Through time and space Strategic Partnership - Exchange of Best Practices Countries: France, Romania, Greece, Italy, Spain Organizations: Zorro et Compagnies (France, coordinator): theatre, audiovisual, arts education for children, youth, adults. Digijeunes (France). Digital education for youth, computer support for all ages, robotics. Creative plus (Romania): personal development through the arts for children and youth. Kavilia (Greece): handicrafts and wooden buildings, artistic and citizens projects with children and youth. La Paranza (Italy): traditional music group, teaching of singing and music for all ages. Ateneu Ciutat de Manises (Spain): multidisciplinary art school (music, dance, theatre, audiovisual), for children, youth, adults. Actions for babies and the elderly. Project duration: 22 months (March 2021-December 2022) The title of this project clearly refers to our living conditions during the health crisis, when time and space changed for us. Confined, time had become long; the space had become small. Deprived of some of our habits, our freedom, our contacts, we all invented solutions not to remain isolated. After the Italians who, first affected by the virus, sang on the windows since their confinement, everyone found in turn an idea to resist the dissolution of the links: virtual aperitifs, applause at the windows, concerts at a distance ... What about us, youth workers, operators of art and culture? We too, lost behind our computers without knowing how to regain the contact and the human relationship of our activities, have tried to find solutions to overcome this period of forced shutdown or to continue working. We tried to keep a connection with our students, members and volunteers, who were sometimes lost on the other side. With this project "Through time and space", we imagine being able to cross space, carrying out a European collaboration without travelling; and to pass through time, because we will meet in a year and a half, around at the end of our project, when we hope that the health crisis will be behind us. To achieve this, we have planned two main actions that will take place in parallel: 1) We will set up 3 virtual cultural activities, resulting from a work of remote consultation, to our young participants but also to ourselves, youth workers, who will introduce each of us to the activities of others and learn together to work in a new way using new technologies. To design and carry out these activities, we will create pairs (3 activities for 6 partners). The pairs will be made up of partners with similar and/or complementary activities: France (Zorro et Compagnies)/ Romania (Creative plus) : theatre + drawing, to create a comic book; Italy (La Paranza) /Spain (Ateneu ciutat de Manises) : traditional music + classical music + audiovisual, to introduce young people to creating the soundtrack of a film; Greece (Kavilia) /France (Digijeunes): crafts and mechanics + robotics and digital animation, to computer model wood construction projects. Each partner will include a group of 5 youth (18-30 years old) in the design of the activity and then in its use, which will be accessible to all. 2) At the same time, we will make a documentary film consisting of 6 parts of about 10 minutes each (one per partner), which will then be edited together in a single film. Each part will show an overview of the work of the cultural structure and the situation in its country in these difficult times: difficulties, solutions, experiences, anecdotes... Young participants and film students will help with writing, directing and editing. The film will be subtitled in English. At the end of this long distance work, carried out partially in virtual collaboration and partially in autonomy, we will make an appointment to finally meet each other in real life, a year and a half later, at the end of the summer of 2022. We will organize in France 2 screenings of the documentary film. One screening will take place in a cinema in Toulouse and the other outdoors in a small town 100 km from Toulouse. It will be the culmination of a long and patient "navigation" in virtual waters, of which this present-day meeting will be the lighthouse. One issue that is close to our hearts will also cross and feed this project: it is the environmental issue. Changes imposed by health situation will have the advantage of teaching us to limit our impact on the environment, by reducing air travel. We will continue to believe in the value of intercultural meeting and we wish to meet in real life, but we will use without abusing the possibilities of traveling that modern life offers us. We will also be supported by partner associations specializing in environmental issues to study our digital pollution and learn solutions to reduce it through this virtual work.
Nous voulions surtout réussir à trouver des solutions alternatives pour survivre pendant cette période difficile. La culture avait été classée « non essentielle ». Nous étions devenus soudainement « non essentiels ». Pouvoir travailler quand-même et faire quelque chose de positif était une question de survie financière mais aussi de survie existentielle et morale. Réussir à nous réinventer, ne pas perdre notre public, ne pas perdre notre travail et le sens de notre travail, était le but principal de ce projet et de tout ce que nous avons entrepris en cette période. Mettre en place des activités virtuelles à la place des activités habituelles, mener un projet européen malgré les tests, les interdictions, les quarantaines, créer ensemble et non seulement chacun seul chez lui, était une forme de résistance nécessaire.
Ce projet est né avant tout d’un besoin : celui de surmonter la situation de détresse professionnelle provoquée chez beaucoup de structures culturelles par la crise sanitaire. L’appel à projet lui-même, spécial « Créativité et culture », visait à priori à venir en aide aux structures artistiques et culturelles frappées par les interdictions et les impossibilités de la période Covid. Nous avons déposé cette candidature en octobre 2020, quand la crise sanitaire battait à nouveau son plein et à nouveau nous ne pouvions plus travailler. Comme nous, plein de collègues et amis se trouvaient en grande difficulté. Les aides ne correspondaient pas à toutes les situations et tout le monde n’arrivait pas à trouver des solutions. Le premier but de ce projet était donc de trouver des solutions alternatives aux activités qui ne pouvaient plus avoir lieu localement et/ou en présentiel, et de nouvelles sources de revenus pour les structures mises en difficultés par l’arrêt de leurs activités principales.